The Vindice Mission
by TheLuciferPerson
Summary: What happens when Gokudera needs to go on a dangerous secret mission, and vanishes? This is my interpretation of what being an army/CIA spouse might be like. Wake up, he's gone, and life must go on.


**Note:**

**On the off chance that you [the reader] have not read my other story, "_Straightening Out_," here is some context that you maybe might want to know.**

**- Gokudera and Yamamoto are in a more or less committed relationship.**

**- They originally had separate apartments, but some time into the relationship combined the Storm and Rain apartments into a dual structure.**

**That is all.**

**This story is not meant to be a continuation of "_Straightening Out_."**

* * *

/

**_[Present – In the Rain apartment bedroom; Nighttime]_**

He had been staring around the dark Rain bedroom for so long that he could pick out every dim light source, however faint.

The sliver of light coming through the top of the navy curtains at the window was tinted slightly blue. There was a thin bar of white light at the bottom of the bedroom door, shining like an emergency exit signal. The numbers on the nearby alarm clock glowed dark red and so glaringly that Gokudera didn't look at them, but he knew all the same that the time would be something terribly indecent.

Next to him, the blunt figure of Yamamoto was sleeping.

Gokudera looked at him, closed his eyes, and turned his back on him carefully to avoid waking him. As he slowly shifted his position, the announcement that Tsuna had made to him the month previous weighed on his mind in the way that sleep did not on his eyelids.

* * *

/

**_[Flashback – In the Vongola Main Office; Work Hours during the previous month]_**

"So," Tsuna said, leaning slightly over his desk to him. "How much do you know about the Vindice?"

Gokudera shrugged. "About as much as anyone, I suppose, which is not much."

Tsuna stared at him for a moment. The Vongola boss was accustomed to asking a question about the Mafia, no matter how random, and having his Right-Hand rattle off a complicated and elaborate list of facts that he had to have repeated at least twice more to understand it all. This answer, which more or less amounted to an admission of ignorance, was not only unexpected, but also unpleasant.

He cleared his throat. "Well, tell me everything that you can think of."

"They're the Mafia's law enforcement. Nasty little devils who magic up out of smoke that comes from nowhere and chain up anyone who doesn't act as they see fit. No one who has fooled them once has managed it twice, or even wants to exhaust themselves trying again. Former Arcobalenoes, the lot of them, but the description "former" does not indicate a weakness in any way. Don't seem to have a declared leader, but it hardly matters, as they're all of one mind. Rather odd costumes they have, dressed like mummies in 18th century style suits, but that's of no consequence. They have charge over the Vendicare Prison, but no one knows where that is except that it's somewhere in Europe." Gokudera shrugged again. "All together, they virtually have limitless strength and power," he concluded.

But Tsuna didn't hear his last statement, perhaps fortunately, as he was focused on the penultimate one. "No one knows where their…err… permanent residence is?" he asked, more than a bit awkwardly.

"The assumption is that they live in the Vendicare Prison, though this hasn't been directly confirmed."

"And no one has their contact?"

Gokudera had to laugh at that one. "If anyone somehow had the Vindice's contact, the Vindice would personally show up to blast that person into oblivion. So the answer is an emphatic no."

"…Ah. Well then, it seems that we have a bit of a problem. You see, uh, Gokudera," Tsuna said, rolling his office chair a bit forward and then back again. "We need to contact the Vindice."

* * *

/

**_[Present – In the Rain apartment bedroom; Nighttime]_**

"We need to contact the Vindice…the Vindice…the Vindice…" Tsuna's words echoed in Gokudera's mind.

Very little had the power to disturb the Storm Guardian, but as he spoke the name of the Vindice into the still air of the bedroom in his beautiful native tongue of Italian, the darkness seemed to press upon him harder.

"_I Vendicatori,_" he whispered. The Avengers. Despite the gross misuse in the civilian arena, where happy exciting movies about superheroes hailed under the words, in the Mafia, those same words meant the ghoulish police law-keeping force, and that meant fear.

Gokudera lay on his bed, next to the warm body of his partner, in the pleasantly comfortable home that they had built together, knowing that this could be the last night that he would be in such surroundings for a while, and he still couldn't enjoy it properly and sleep.

Absurd thoughts flitted through his mind.

Had he committed any minor transgressions in his past that the Vindice were going to punish him for all at once? They must already be annoyed with the Vongola for having Fran and especially Mukuro – would they find an excuse to lock him up indefinitely for his prank? Would they suddenly decide that they could no longer tolerate having a bastard as the second single most powerful man in the Mafia and expel him?

The irrational questions abounded as his mind drifted in uncertainty as aimlessly as the Vindice's prisoners did in their tight water-prison cells.

* * *

/

**_[Flashback – In the Vongola Main Office; Work Hours during the previous month]_**

"Excuse me, ahem," said Gokudera, startled. "We need to contact the Vindice?"

"Yes. We do. We–"

"–_Per amor di dio_, Why do we have to contact _i Vendicatori?!"_

Tsuna widened his eyes. "Well, uhm," he said, shocked at Gokudera's reaction to his pronouncement. "We have to contact them because of the firestorm that we provoked in the Levant with our recent big deal. As I announced in the past couple of meetings, we're going to get involved completely in the conflict and I want the Vindice to be keeping an eye on things."

"You think they're _not_ keeping an eye on things already? Did I mention that these buggers spontaneously appear out of smoke that generates from nowhere?" exclaimed Gokudera, wild eyed. "For all I know, they have a crystal balled tucked away in their hole from which they monitor the entire world!"

"Calm _down_," Tsuna said, now positively alarmed. "Gokudera, I've never seen you being so superstitious like this!"

"It's the Vindice. They're the _gods_ of the Mafia." Gokudera was trying to calm himself down, but was no less happy about the idea of contacting the Vindice than before. "But back to the point, you can bet this _entire_ establishment that they've been checking up on us _right_ from the beginning."

"Probably they are, but I mean that I want them to side with us."

"They're the _Vindice_. They side with no one but themselves!"

"A minute ago you were telling me that you don't know much about the Vindice, and now you know all their mannerisms?"

"Tsuna, you don't understand. This is basic stuff. _Everyone_ knows not to touch the Vindice and to avoid them whenever possible," Gokudera said, fighting his frustration and panic as swallowed dryly. "As, as you grew up as a civilian kid, your parents told you stories about the boogeyman to scare you into order, right? Well, for me, for _any_ kid in the Mafia, that's the Vindice. Except, except… the Vindice is _real_."

Tsuna, his soft brown eyes round, looked at his agitated Storm Guardian and was reminded that Gokudera had had, after all, a traumatizing childhood.

"…Well… Even if getting them on our side is impossible, I'd still like them to be judges in the conflict. I know the Mafia Code Handbook almost as well as you by this point, and it says that that's strongly encouraged. And I've heard tell that whoever arranges this first often gets the upper hand."

"But this is unprecedented," Gokudera quickly put in. "There hasn't been a international conflict like this for ages and the rules to which you refer to mainly deal with age-old binary spats between Families, not complex modern wars like this. Also, none of this solves the unsolvable problem of how to contact the Vindice."

"That's what's been puzzling me ever since you told me that no one knows the Vindice's address or contact. The Families in the past who called on them to deal with their spats that you just talked about – How did they manage to contact the Vindice?"

"They didn't. The Vindice contacted them. The Mafia was only just starting to gain strength at that time and so the Vindice were just finding their real power at that time too. So they got involved in everything they conceivably could to establish their power along with the Mafia's."

"…Ah. And you don't think the Vindice will communicate with us first?"

"Us as in the Vongola? Not before we enter the war; after it, more likely. Not when we have a history with Viper/Mammon, Fran and Mukuro," Gokudera replied, shaking his head darkly. "I wouldn't be surprised if they resent us for having the only known people who have managed to pull the wool over their eyes, and we certainly won't have earned their love for protecting the only known escapee from their notorious Water Prison. It makes me nervous as it is that we're in the Levant war at all; I don't need any other factors to scare the shit out of me."

"Gokudera, I get that you hate my idea, but…" Tsuna sighed. "We can't get out of the Levant war now and I'm not risking the backlash that we could suffer if we lose or maybe even just tie. You know better than me what happens if we lose."

Gokudera nodded stiffly. He had witnessed a few times and it had been more than enough. The smoke suddenly billowing up; the chains whipping around the wretched victims; the screams that faded into thin air as everything and everyone but the victors were vanished off the battlefield.

"I'm not having anyone in our Family locked up to never see the light of day again, okay? We need to at least try," said Tsuna firmly, speaking as the Vongola Boss and his tone leaving no room for argument. "We must think of a plan to contact the Vindice to strike a wager with them, and we have to carry out this plan immediately."

* * *

/

**_[Present – In the Rain apartment bedroom; Nighttime]_**

'He's crazy, he must be crazy,' Gokudera thought. '_I _must be crazy. I should call the whole thing off. I should. I should get up right now and call Fran and the rest of the team and call it off. I really should.'

Despite his heavy misgivings about the mission, however, he made no move to reach for his phone.

His restlessness, however, wasn't going away. Far from sleeping, he felt ready to thrash about on the bed in a futile effort to rid himself of his stress.

As he turned over again on the bed, he accidently brushed against Yamamoto, who was still sleeping cozily only a hand's breath away from him. Gokudera stopped and looked at him sleeping like a peaceful angel incarnate without a care in the world, in perfect ignorance of being disappeared on without a trace come the next morning. Like how opposites repel each other, he suddenly felt galled by lying next to possibly the most good-natured man in the Mafia when he was going to associate with the worst devils alive or dead when daybreak dame.

He took up his phone from the bed-stand, got out of bed, and started moving towards the strip of light where the door was.

"Where're you going?" Yamamoto asked softly. He was blearily looking at Gokudera through half-lidded eyes, apparently having woken when Gokudera had gotten out of bed.

"Nowhere." Gokudera answered smoothly, though he had frozen mid-step. "I'm just going to get a cup of tea."

"Mmkay," the Rain Guardian said sleepily. "What time is it?"

"It's really late. Go back to sleep."

With that, after watching his partner snuggle himself back into the sheets, the Storm Guardian slipped out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him before speeding off as quietly as possible to his side of the apartment.

Once in his own bedroom, lying between his own cool sheets in the new darkness with his eyes closed and his hands behind his head, he wondered if what sort of note he should leave Yamamoto before he left. Nothing over a few sentences. The sort of thing he might say in a breath or two, in between too-casual sips of coffee. A text or an email or any other sort of electronic message was clearly unfitting. Just plain pen and paper would do.

And only the facts with nothing irrelevant. Nothing emotional. Maybe a brief apology for keeping the mission secret. Just a few pithy statements with "Sincerely," and his signature attached at the end of the note and put on the Rain kitchen table on his way out.

But though Gokudera, after years of writing and reading reports, fully knew the value of the planned, drafted, and edited word, he couldn't help feeling that he would get the best result if he scribbled the note in the last minute before his early departure.

'I'll plan a draft in the morning,' he told himself, set his phone alarm ten minutes earlier, and fell asleep.

* * *

/

**_[Flashback – In the Vongola Main Office; Work Hours during the previous month]_**

"A plan? What plan?" Gokudera asked no one in particular in despair. "The Vindice aren't going to come no matter how long we stand around and call them. They only appear when they're unwanted! If we breached the Code, they would come, but only to lock up one or more of us!"

"Hmm…" Tsuna put his head in his hands thoughtfully. "Will they come if a Code is _about_ to be breached?"

"Well, theoretically they can't stop a crime before it happens, as that would be violating the to-be-perpetrator's rights, but there have been a few cases in which they've prevented an action, yes," said Gokudera reluctantly and a little bit hesitantly. "But only a few throughout the entire history of the Mafia, and in only very extreme cases."

"What happened in the few cases that you just spoke of?"

"_Tsuna_." Gokudera gave him a sharp look. "I _know_ you're only asking because you want to try it for ourselves, and I refuse."

Tsuna sighed. "Please, just tell me. If it's anything as extreme as you're making it out to be, I won't consider it an option."

Gokudera didn't believe a word he had just been told, but determined to reject any and all ideas that Tsuna might throw at him to parallel the situations, he briefly laid out the cases anyway. "We've been through one of them already," he said curtly. "Remember the match we had with the Simon Family?"

"Oh yeah…But didn't they come after the fight?"

"After the fight, yes, but not after the entire match. Not after the entire set had been concluded. So that's one. The other ones are way back in history, mostly around the time right after the Mafia system had been established. They mostly deal with interFamilial wars, such as in cases where one of them was betrayed and sold out to the other. The Vindice generally stopped them or supervised the fighting because they didn't want both of the Families to collapse." With that, Gokudera stopped speaking.

"Well that was specific," Tsuna said sarcastically. "So all of them were in-between Families? No intraFamilial ones?"

Gokudera shook his head. "None that I can think of right now, anyway."

Tsuna sighed. "It's not like we can ask a Family to send over a representative to fight over who gets control over the Vongola. Are you sure you can't think of a case in which the Vindice might show up before a Code-breach in which there's nothing like a war involved?"

"Who knows how the Vindice really operates? I'm surprised they didn't crush the Estraneo Family before Mukuro did it for them. I'm surprised they didn't show up when we had that whole scuffle with Byakuran and the Millifiore. I'm surprised they're not at the Levant right now though, perhaps, they have been and it just hasn't been shouted all over the place."

"Think small scale, Gokudera, small scale. We can't simulate anything as huge and complex as the things you've been talking about."

"I don't want to simulate any of them anyway! And besides, there's a reason why all of the ones I've spoken about are 'huge and complex,' as you've said – it needs to be showy to a certain extent for the Vindice to get involved before it even happens!"

"So try to think of something showy and small! We're the Vongola, surely we don't have to do anything particularly horrendous to get attention?"

"We'll get attention but not interference. Precisely because we're the most powerful, the Vindice will fiddle with us less than they would with the more easily intimidated Families. Unless we try to do something that could potentially damage the Mafia structure or have incredibly long-reaching negative impacts like, like, oh I don't know, all the Guardians trying to kill each other, they won't get involved."

"And I don't suppose we can–"

"–_No_. Can you imagine the mass confusion that would result? And the tabloids? 'Vongola Guardians all go at each other's throats; Right-hand commits suicide.'" Gokudera slapped his hands on Tsuna's desk. "I will not _abide_ such a disgrace."

"Well even if that actually happened, you won't be committing suicide anyway," Tsuna replied crossly. "You'd be taken away by the Vindice, as per my plan."

"And what a wonderful plan it is," Gokudera told him, "That concludes with me rotting under the watery reign of the angels of hell."

"My plan doesn't include getting you _imprisoned!_ Of course not! In case you've misunderstood something, I just want to do something almost criminal that's flashy and involves only a few people. Don't you see? I just want to get the Vindice over here first so that then we can then reveal the gag and get them on the negotiation table with you."

"And what gag, as you call it, is that?" The Right-hand scowled at the ceiling and ran his fingers through his hair. "It's going to have to be something within the top echelon if it's going to involve only a few people, and the fewer people it involves, the more extreme it has to be, which probably means that only some attempted overthrow of power will be enough to get the Vindice over here. Unless we get Hibari to pretend to seriously face off against you for the title of Boss, I don't see how it's going to happen, but that's so absurd the Vindice might just look at us and laugh."

"Look at us and laugh…" Tsuna repeated slowly, a dangerous idea seeming to dawn on him. "No, that's it!" he exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. "That's it!"

"Hibari trying to murder you is _it_?" Gokudera repeated, eyebrows raised in shock. "But that doesn't even make any sense! Sure, he emits his damned murderous aura wherever he goes, but he doesn't even like being in this Family, for god's sake, no one would believe that he'd try to–"

"–No, _you_ trying to murder me! Just think about it! The Boss facing off against the Right-hand over a struggle in power, how much more showy and exciting could it get?!"

"You think _I'm_ more likely to try to kill you than _Hibari_ is?! What sort of flagrantly insulting–"

"–No no, of course in _normal_ circumstances, no one would believe that, but have you seen the tabloids lately? They're crazy with thinking that you and I have seriously fallen out because we disagree on the Levant conflict! They've invented this character of you in which you're consistently raging against me or something! We can pretend like this fight is you trying to take over the Vongola because you don't like the way I run it!"

"What sane person believes those trashy tabloids anyway?" Gokudera asked furiously, now positively irritated. "This is just preposterous!"

"Well you're the one who mentioned the tabloids in the first place," Tsuna pointed out. "And yes, of course this is all outrageous, but why can't we use the rumor mill to our advantage for once? Even if we don't act out some ridiculous skit, all we'd have to do is emit some killing aura and have a go at each other and that would be enough!"

But Gokudera was already shaking his head hard enough to whip his hair all around his face. "_No._ Look, if you're so set on having some sort of crazy fight happen, I'd rather have our illusionists create the scenario so it can all be perfectly clear later that it was all a trick."

"_Yes._ And we can't have our illusionists create an entire fight scenario as complex as the kind of fight we'll be having with real-illusions that's also convincing enough to fool the Vindice. Even if it's possible, which I doubt, the preparation would take months and months."

"Well, _take_ months and months, then! The Levant war isn't going to end next week!"

"Gokudera, I don't need you to be needlessly argumentative with me right now," Tsuna said sternly, slipping into his I'm-the-Boss tone again. "C'mon, this is the only idea we have that could work. We both have enough control to avoid hurting each other too severely as we fight, so neither of us will sustain any real damage, which is important since you'll have to speak with them right afterwards. The Vindice aren't exactly known for sticking around, after all. I'll talk to them when they show up and send you on with them with my protection."

"And if they don't wait for you?" Gokudera asked with an intense cut to his voice. "If they just whisk me away? The Vindice won't take this sort of treachery lightly."

"I'll make _sure_ you don't get put in prison," Tsuna promised. "I'll tell them it was all my idea. It's not treachery if it was just an act. The instant I even hear the clink of their chains, I'll be right by your side and I'll make sure you won't get taken away. And if you do get taken away, which is not going to happen, I'll steal you out if the Vindice refuses to listen to me, alright?"

"…Alright. But what about–"

"–And I'll make sure that nobody gets the wrong idea and thinks you actually tried to kill me. I'll go to the press offices myself and tell them what happened. Don't _worry_. The ignorant and stupid will think what they want to think as usual, but no one of any real importance will believe it, and after I'm through, your reputation will only go up for having deceived the Vindice with me."

Gokudera nodded once and then sighed. "Since you're so set on this, I suppose I'll have to do it."

Tsuna clapped his hands together and smiled too brightly for anyone planning to engage in a near life-or-death fight with his closest associate. "Excellent!" he beamed. "Are we going to practice for the fight?"

"Can a person practice shooting themselves in the head?" Gokudera sarcastically asked. "No, we can't practice. The choreography, no matter how smooth, would show, and the fight has to be natural as possible."

"What about the verbal argument? We're not going to just start randomly fighting in a field; wouldn't we have to have some sort of context for it?"

"We'll need some situational context; we'd have to fight almost directly outside the Base, for example, since it wouldn't make sense that we'd suddenly have an actual death-match in a pleasantly prepared and cleared fighting ground ("Or anywhere at all, for that matter," the still-displeased Right-hand muttered under his breath). And we'll need to practice producing some serious killing-intent Flames, but I don't think anything else would be necessary. Even the Vindice isn't watching our every word."

"I suppose we'll have to avoid destroying too much of the property around us as we fight, then," said Tsuna. "And I suppose we'll be using all we've got?"

"Of course. We'll just have to trust each other to be clever and strong enough to block or deflect the attack."

"Mhm." Tsuna grinned a little nervously. "Even Reborn wouldn't subject me to such intense training as this. Just to make sure, we are on par in fighting ability, right? It would be terrible if one of us got the upper hand while we're fighting."

Gokudera shrugged. "We have different strengths, but I think overall we'd do alright against each other. The setting doesn't favor either of us, so that's good. Since the fight will last at least an hour, what's really important is that no one from the Vongola interferes."

"We'll cover the Base with illusions so that everything appears normal. Not a lot of energy needs to put into that as long as all the sound is muffled and no one randomly pops out of the Base. So we'll have to have the heads of the Mist Department in the know."

"Yes. And the Mist heads will have to cover for the civilian damage too. But that's not a serious issue," the Storm Guardian said, rather more concerned about himself and his job. "Let's talk about what I'm going to say to the Vindice, provided that any of this works. You want me to brief them on our position and ask them to supervise the war so things don't devolve into chaos from corruption and disorganization and the like, right?"

"In a nutshell, yes. We'll talk about exactly what you're going to present to them later." Tsuna took concerned look and leaned closer to his Right-hand. "Gokudera, you're going to have to go alone, and this is going to take at least a few weeks, you know that, don't you? The Vindice surely won't be persuaded easily."

"If at all," Gokudera added grimly. "And I'll have to stay with them during that time until the negotiations conclude or they just decide to kick me out. I severely doubt that they'll let me go back and forth between the Base and their establishment and if I'm allowed it at all, my communication with even you will be limited. I certainly won't be allowed to take any communication devices with me."

Tsuna sighed. "I guess that's just the way it's going to have to be. We'll talk more about this tomorrow."

Gokudera nodded and headed for the door. Just before he opened it, Tsuna called him one last time.

"I'll call the Mist Department and tell them what to do with covering the Base's view of us as we fight. And I know I hardly need to remind you, but let's keep this quiet as possible, alright?"

"Absolutely. Actually, we have to keep this entirely secret from _everyone._"

"A secret from everyone? So that no one who's not involved, not even Kyoko or Takeshi, knows anything at all about it?"

"Yes. I know it's unusual and extreme, but then everything about this project is. We have to keep this entirely secret." With that final statement, Gokudera left.

* * *

/

**_[Present – In the Rain apartment bedroom; The next morning]_**

Yamamoto turned off his alarm clock after a couple of rings and slowly sat up. As he woke up completely, he realized that Gokudera wasn't anywhere in the room or the adjacent bathroom either.

Unperturbed, he washed his face quickly at the sink and went out of the bedroom, looking to see if his partner had just decided to start an early day and was already taking his breakfast and coffee at the kitchen, as he sometimes did. But when he glanced in the kitchen, Gokudera wasn't there, or in the living room, or really anywhere in the Rain Apartment.

So Yamamoto went to the open passageway that was between the Rain and Storm apartments and listened closely. If the silence meant anything, Gokudera wasn't anywhere in the dual-apartment at all.

'Did he seriously leave to go to work that early?' the Rain Guardian asked himself in disbelief. 'He didn't even tell me last night! But maybe he just remembered that he'd forgotten to do something? That damn workaholic...'

Yamamoto went back to the bedroom, fetched his phone, and called Gokudera. After a minute or so, he realized that he could hear faintly hear the ringing of Gokudera's phone.

'What? He left his phone behind? But that's impossible…' Yamamoto incredulously followed the sound of the ringing, which led him to the Storm apartment bedroom.

When he got there, he at once knew that something was up. Gokudera had apparently made his bed before he'd left, but he'd clearly slept by himself here in the Storm bedroom, as his neatly folded pajamas were at the foot of this bed. Narrowing his eyes slightly, Yamamoto ended his call after a glance at Gokudera's phone, which was ringing on the bed-stand, and touched the pajamas. The fabric was cool, which confirmed that Gokudera had left very early.

'This is so odd. I know he didn't mention anything before about having to leave early for work, but even if he had gone without telling me somehow, there's no way he would leave his phone. And what's up with coming here to sleep by himself?' Yamamoto dimly remembered how he had half-woken the last night when Gokudera had gotten out of bed. 'He just said he was getting some tea,' he thought a bit sadly.

Feeling a little confused, a bit dejected, the Rain Guardian slowly left the Storm bedroom to go back to his own apartment.

Back in the Rain kitchen, he made himself a cup of coffee at the kitchen counter, listlessly watching the coffee machine grind up the coffee beans into dust before putting in some hot water and slowly stirring the mixture. It was all in all, not one of his better mornings and he felt as though mystery had shrouded what sleep had abandoned.

It wasn't until he had sat down at the kitchen table with his cup that he saw the note. It was written on a large bright yellow sticky note, stuck to the table and placed under the pen, which had written its message, for good measure. Carefully taking a sip of coffee to settle his sudden rush of relief and nerves, Yamamoto picked up the note and read it.

_I've gone on a mission to try to bring the Vindice to_

_our side on the Levant conflict_, it read in tidy cursive.

_It was top secret, which was why I had to leave with-_

_out telling you, sorry. I might be gone for a few weeks, _

_but nothing's certain. Don't believe anyone but Tsuna _

_on what really happened this morning; I imagine there_

_will be drama circulating. Keep well while I'm gone._

_Love, Hayato._

Yamamoto slowly picked up his coffee mug again, this time with both hands, and took another careful sip.

'You stupid twat,' he thought to himself. 'What have you gotten yourself into now?' The thought of walking through the Rain Department to get to his Office, being subjected to all sorts of looks and whispers, whatever they would be about, on behalf of Gokudera, made him loathe to go for work. He took another gulp of coffee. 'And how did _you_ feel when you got up by yourself at daybreak and got ready to face those nightmarish creatures? You didn't need to leave me like this. You could have said something, it's not like I would have told anyone.'

Glancing at the time, Yamamoto quickly threw down the rest of his still hot black coffee, snatched up the note, and started getting ready for work with a burning in his throat.

'Just going to get a cup of tea, he said. Liar.'

He went back to the bathroom that was connected to his bedroom, washed himself, and got dressed. As he collected his things, put Gokudera's phone on the charger, and headed for the front door, he glanced at the note that had been left him one more time at the apartment threshold before stuffing it into his breast-pocket.

_Keep well while I'm gone. _

_Love, Hayato._

'Always telling me what to do," Yamamoto thought, shaking his head slightly. "_You_ just come back."

And with that, he too left.

* * *

/

**I seem to be writing a lot about the juggling of work/politics and relationships lately, though I'd like to think that I do it in a more sophisticated way than most. (It kills me that I had to label this story as "Romance"... This story is _not_ about romance; it is about commitment, just to make that clear.)**

**I'm a bit concerned that the last part approached bathos. But then, maybe it's just okay.**

**If you [the reader] have read my works before, then you know my style. If not, then I hope this worked for you.**

**Tell me what you think, and _Review_, please.**

Thank you.


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